Manuel Antonio Day 11-14
We wanted to finish off our holiday on the beach, so jumped in the rental and made our way southwest from La Fortuna to Manual Antonio (5.5 hours). This was the WORST part of the driving we encountered! Hair pins turns, horrific pot holes and some un paved mountainous roads lead for some stressful times... but we made it!
Our digs, Hotel Playa Espadilla & Gardens, was another winner!! While the rooms were a little basic, they were spacious, clean and came with towel created animals, but the pools and location are what make it a perfect place to call home. The pool had a swim up bar with stool, and the hubs and I enjoyed cocktails while London enjoyed epic smoothies every day!!! We even ate yummy snacks. It is just a 4-5 minute walk from the main drag with restaurants and the beach as well as 4-5 minute walk to Manuel Antonio National Park. The only downside side is the breakfast buffet, I think they could work to step it up a bit. It did the job but we had been so spoiled the whole trip with food, so I was bummed. We hit the pool every day!!!
We arrived on St. Patrick's Day, so after we had some pool time, we put on our green and walked to dinner. Basically there are 2 restaurants that have a beach view, we chose the one on the left, lol forgot the name. 2 for 1 happy hours and good food as we watch the sunset on the water.
We bought our tickets to @Manuel Antonio Nation park online for 9 am, so we could have the full day. I read ahead online and through reviews and the the strict rules of NO food, water only as it stated there was a snack shack on site for food. **TIP** Not true, it is closed for renovations but it did not say it anywhere and the line to get in took us around 30 mins before we got to the security checkpoint to learn this. Quite frustrating as I knew this would cut our available time on site as we would get hungry for lunch. So triple check before you go!! As annoying as that was, it is SPECTACULAR to experience this place!!! We walked through the rainforest seeing monkeys, sloths, iguanas, capybaras and birds to a sandy beach with turquoise water!!! The walk was pretty easy as it was a path the whole way and lots of shade with restrooms just before the beach. We choose to go to "playa Manuel Antonio" which is number 6 on the map and it was so amazing! Turquoise bay with a sandy beach and beautiful tree coverage to not get overheated. Many people said in reviews they thought it was too touristy and crowded, and there were a lot of people but there is a reason for this. You literally get everything at one spot and I was still able to layout our 3 towels to create a little area for us. with 4-6 feet perimeter between us and others. We stayed till 1:30 as we were starving and still had the 30-45 minute walk back through the rainforest. We would have stayed ALL DAY if we had food. Once you leave you are not allowed to return either, which was annoying.
We decided to have a small snack then shower to head over to @El Avion for an early dinner to catch the sunset. This place is so cool, they took an old airplane and made it into a bar inside and built out a restaurant surrounding it up on the cliff side with views of the ocean. It is only a 7-8 minute drive from where we stayed, technically walkable but it was up a large hill and hot, so we opted to drive. We arrived at 3:30 and got the corner table with a view of the ocean. We took our time and ordered the nacho appetizer platter (delish) then fajitas and the little one had cheese quesadilla (so good). Drinking a Mai Tai and watching the sun go down. We stayed till about 5:30, never feeling rushed, in fact it was the restaurant that suggest this as there are no reservations.
The last day we spent at the main beach in town, as mentioned, a convenient 4 minute walk away. We paid $15 (US) to rent 2 lounge chairs, a table and an umbrella. No chairs/umbrellas are free on this beach so if you don't take your own, you will have to pay someone. *TIP* watch out for the guys on the street as they try to get you and I just felt it was a better deal ($5 less) and the one recommended by the hotel lets you pay at the end of the day and they will let you order from the restaurant for food and drinks and deliver it you on the beach. We also rented a jet ski which sat all three of us for 1 hour and went around the bay. The guy keeps an eye out to keep your bag safe while you do this. For example he had to move some people chairs and stuff as the tide came in. Jet skis were fun, but you can't take them too far so 3 mins would have been plenty for the area. This was a great way to spend our last day. As we knew we were jet skiing, we decided to leave the phone back at the hotel for the day and just use the GOPro for the day. As I still have not gone through the footage, I will add it later so I can just get this post up, lol.
In summary, this country really does have something for everyone, from beaches, to lush jungles, animals and exhilarating adventure tours with some fabulous food and attitude on life, Costa Rica should be on everyone's list!!!
London's FIRSTS:
Animals: Sloth, Poison Dart Frog, Blue Jean Frog, Red Eye Frog, White Nosed Coati & Fleur de Lance
Adventures: Horseback riding on her own horse, natural hot springs, baby turtles heading to the ocean, multi tier zip line (highest and longest), Jet skiing, hanging bridges, chocolate tasting tour
Nature: Rainforest
#PuraVida #Beaches #animals #jungle #familyadventure #holidayroad
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